Quote:
Originally Posted by Paradox21
My biggest personal problem with the over-abundant development of retail is the fact that the rapid geographic dispersal of amenities has often led to an acceleration of sprawl--which of course can lead to lot of negative health, cultural, and environmental effects.
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Also, I'm not too fond of the fact that free-market capitalism has allowed big box retailers to rapidly devour local institutions at the expense of regional heritage and a more diversified shopping experience, but obviously big box retailers do fulfill a need for many people (including myself) and I suppose there is a price to pay for "lower prices."
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Does retail accelerate sprawl on its own, or do consumer preferences toward shiny new shopping centers form the real impetus? Clearly retail is a huge component of suburbanization and decentralizing growth, but as high of an opinion as most developers might have of themselves, few have demonstrated the ability to create demand. They gauge where it already exists and work with it.
Big boxes might be a blight to the landscape by many people's perceptions, but like you said, they fulfill a need for many people. Clearly we as consumers are at least in part to blame for killing off main streets, since those big boxes would never have proliferated if we didn't shop there en masse.